Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Sacred spring

"You know, you would be cute in the maid dress," she said to that kind of fairy.

To her surprise, she immediately changed her outfit, thus wearing exactly the dress that the vampire had in mind. Even the hair was tied in a ponytail as she had imagined.

"Haha! What about a butler? What about...?"

Forgetting that her enemies were waiting for her down the tree, she began to try on several of the different dresses she had on the fairy. It had always been one of her passions, and the reason why she had chosen to learn the tailor crafting in the game.

Besides, that little being was a tiny version of herself, so she could see how those same clothes fit her. In fact, now that the sun had set, she changed the look of her tunic to a full body dress inspired by a Chinese one. It was short on her legs, where it was open at the sides to allow her to move freely.

"This is quite sexy. Although those skeletons won't be able to appreciate it," she lamented, finally looking back at them.

She wasn't far from rising to 8, but the skeletons didn't give her much experience anymore. However, she had the heavy hammer again, and a fairy willing to retrieve it. So, she decided to play Hammer the Skeleton for a while.

"Heh, heh. Eldi would've loved that name," she said to herself. "Too bad they don't drop something, like in the game."

To her surprise, a new fairy came out and paced the battlefield. She soon brought her various low-level bone powder, and Gjaki assigned her a coverall with a cap.

Soon, the number of skeletons had decreased considerably, but she still had to level up, so she decided to Glide towards one of the zombies. While Gjaki could try to finish them off by dropping the hammer, it was far less efficient, and she didn't want it got light.

Thus, covered in Darkness, she landed behind a level 9 zombie and executed Backstab. Her enemy, with a clear wound that could have killed a human being, turned towards her without much haste. Unlike living beings, the zombies' flesh and organs only serve as a means for the mana to circulate, so damaging them wasn't enough. She had to do more to interrupt the flow of magic.

She kept cutting it, while it tried to turn towards her. However, the vampire was much faster, so she could keep always attacking its back. She also easily dodged the Slap with which the undead tried to hit her.

She had chosen it because it was somewhat far from the other zombies, thus having time to slash it. Only one of the surviving skeletons managed to get closer fast enough. However, it was level 5, so it was an easy prey for the whip. Soon, the zombie also fell apart.

"This's a bit gore... Well, next level is getting closer."

It is true that the scene of the rotten meat being cut was extremely unpleasant, but she was partly used to it. In the game, more than once she had behaved in a somewhat bloody way, even if it was to get into character, or to joke. Now, although she found it repulsive, it seemed that the experience of the game had prepared her for this.

She immediately went to the next one. It was much less crowded, so it was easy for her to attack one at time while staying out of reach. They were cumbersome enemies because of their stamina, their numbers, their toughness, and the lack of blood, at least of blood that she could consume. Nonetheless, for the agile vampire, they were easy enemies due to her slowness.

Of course, if they had been of a higher level, they wouldn't have been that slow, but that was something she didn't have to worry about by now.

She soon wiped out the other three zombies and a couple of skeletons, thus reaching level 8.

At 7, she had recovered Betrayal, a combination of blood magic and illusions, two powers that complemented each other quite well. It was one of those combinations the real reason why Gjaki had chosen this magic, the one that she had to obtain at level 99. Betrayal manipulates the blood of a wounded enemy and adds illusions, so making they believe that an ally is an enemy. It doesn't last long, but it is very effective in causing chaos among enemy ranks.

Bloody Touch was recovered at 8. When imbued in a weapon, it allows blood to be absorbed when said weapon manages to touch it. The amount of blood obtained depends on the wound and the difference in level.

In terms of skills, Unarmed Combat Basics was at 8. It allows accessing skills of that type.

At 8, there was the first of these, Harden, which precisely hardens a part of the body for a few seconds. Therefore, it can be used both offensively and defensively.

She sighed at her own decision to head towards the Sacred Spring. It was close, she could see it on the game map, much closer than the Beginner's Village. That was a good place to rest safely, or to attack the undead which she expected to follow her there. It was also one of the developers' jokes.

The rest of the races could use it to heal and regain strength, but vampires, as it was a sacred place, were damaged by the water.

She approached, while dodging the undead, which were too slow to catch up, and too stupid to encircle her. Soon, she felt like she was passing through a kind of thin invisible membrane. Luckily, not even the developers had come up with the idea of not letting them in.

She looked down at the gently moving water, as it was pushed by its emerging place, and drawn by the small waterfall into which it would fall. She wasn't surprised to see her image reflected on the water, for she had already verified that it was so. Even then, she cursed the game developers once again.

Just out of curiosity, she used Scratch to grow her nails, and dip the tip of one into the water.

"Huh?!"

She expected her nail tip to be corroded, for smoke to come out of it, but, to her surprise, nothing happened. She even ended up sticking the whole finger in, but unlike in the game, the water didn't burn her skin. It didn't harm her.

Somewhat hesitantly, she took some water with her palm and brought it to her lips. Only when she saw that they remained unscathed, did she dare to swallow a tiny sip.

This time, it did have an effect. It wasn't the one she expected, but the one it had had on the other players. Although little, since she had barely tasted it, she noticed how mana and energy was recovering. She even suspected that her wounds would heal if there were any.

"Damn developers!!!" she exclaimed, thus attributing to the creators of the game the difference with the now real world.

Somewhat irritated, she glanced at the barrier that held back the arriving undead, which had followed her trail. She smiled, for she had found a place to vent her irritation.

"With the water and the barrier, this's going to be quite easy," she told herself, while wielding two daggers and advancing towards them.